Safety over convenience

I recently read a very disparaging op/ed column about SMU PD. It seems that this particular student was upset because while doing laundry one evening, she left her door propped open with a sleeping roommate inside. While doing rounds of the building, an officer closed the door.

The student felt the police owed her the $5 she spent to have her room unlocked.

The rest of the article was a rant against SMU PD for various shortcomings.

While I can certainly understand the frustration of being locked out, I disagree with this student’s opinion.

Allow me to paint a different picture of how laundry night might have gone. Let’s say that SMU PD hadn’t come by to close her door and that someone else had come along instead: someone with a criminal record for sexual assault. Let’s say he saw her sleeping roommate and took advantage of the open door. It would take less then five minutes to change her roommate’s life forever.

How would you feel if you were the one responsible for that opportunity? SMU PD is far more concerned with your safety than with your stuff.

If you trust that your “fellow residents wouldn’t allow some lunatic into the building who was looking for open doors … ” then your trust is sadly misplaced. After working as an RA for three years at Texas A&M-College Station as well as living on campus here at SMU, I can say firsthand that your fellow residents DO let in lunatics. Lunatics, I might add, who look perfectly normal.

Often times they look like magazine salesmen (at least one of the magazine solicitors caught in a residence hall this year had an arrest warrant from another state for rape). In one heartbreaking case from my alma mater, a young woman let her drunken boyfriend show himself out of the building rather than walking him to the door. Instead of leaving, he found an unlocked room, entered it and sexually assaulted the student.

Although it is important that you feel comfortable in your home, it’s also important to realize that when we are not careful about who we let into our homes, we put everyone at risk. Since I cannot control who others let into the building when I do laundry, I take two extra seconds to grab my keys and take them with me. Then I’m never locked out when I get back.

I too have occasionally been told a quick “no” when asking for Giddy-Up, I never let them hang up, however, until I ensure a safety escort (a ride in a police car available to women walking alone at night).

Not only that, Lt. Jemmott of the SMU PD offers a self-defense class for female students Wednesday evenings at 5:15 in the Dedman Life Center.

And I especially appreciate the time SMU PD takes to respond to emergency calls on campus.

So I want to say sincerely, thanks guys, thanks so much for ensuring my safety!